“The CPM should draw a lesson from this verdict and step down from power. Despite their terror, the people have once again supported us within one-and-a-half month of the Lok Sabha polls,” Banerjee told a Bengali channel from New Delhi.

Dedicating her party’s victory to “ma-mati-manush (mother, land and the people)”, she said earlier the Trinamool had only Egra municipality in its control and now it has won in 13.

She said even in Asansol, where her party had lost in the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress-Trinamool alliance has done well. Party workers should be humbled by the electoral verdict, she said.

She alleged that in Rajarhat municipality where the CPM won, a huge cache of arms was seized. “I have requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take steps to unearth illegal arms,” she said.

Describing the victory as remarkable, Congress Legislature Party leader Manas Bhuniya said people had again reposed faith in the Congress-Trinamool combine. “The signal is clear. The people have lost faith on the ruling Left Front,” he said.

Partha Chatterjee, Leader of the Opposition and Trinamool legislator said their leader, Mamata Banerjee, has already demanded that the Left Front has no

moral right to be in power any more. “The civic polls results have once again proved the legitimacy of our demand for early Assembly polls,” he said.

Meanwhile, two major Left Front partners, the RSP and the Forward Bloc, said the outcome of municipal poll was not totally unexpected.

“The result is not totally unexpected but at the same time, we did not expect such a poor showing,” PWD minister and senior RSP leader Kshiti Goswami said. The minister admitted that the trend of votes for a change has been further established through municipal polls. “People want change,” he said.

Goswami claimed anti-incumbency was a big factor. “When people have opted for change, it is difficult to check it.” For the Left Front to stage a comeback, he said “we have to take up concrete programmes, go to the people and implement them”.

Veteran Forward Bloc leader Ashok Ghose said land acquisition by the government had its repercussions. He said “the people in the state are basically Left-minded and that is why even Trinamool Congress in its Lok Sabha poll manifesto had mentioned issues which were essentially highlighted by Left parties”.